I'm sure Google deserves some, maybe a lot, of the blame, but the web has just deteriorated steadily over the past 15 years or so and I really don't think it's all their fault.
Maybe, but I honestly don't buy it. (As I said, I do buy that they deserve some blame.)
To me, the web everyone here is nostalgic for was mostly killed by the much larger majority of people whose revealed preference has been for something totally different. Nobody I know outside techie forums would have any idea what we're talking about with this critique of the web. They don't know or care about the "indie web" or other information-rich independent websites. They know and care about facebook, instagram, and tiktok. This isn't (entirely) Google's fault, it's what most people have shown that they want.
I'm sure Google deserves some, maybe a lot, of the blame, but the web has just deteriorated steadily over the past 15 years or so and I really don't think it's all their fault.